The Episcopal Church Lay Employees' Retirement Plan
Under this plan, you have four options for receiving benefit payments:
- Joint Retirement Benefit
- Certain and Continuous Option
- Social Security Adjustment Option
- Lump Sum Payment
Joint Retirement Benefit Option
At the time of retirement, you may choose to reduce your benefit to provide a surviving spouse or second adult beneficiary with a continuing benefit of 50%, 66-2/3%, 75% or 100% of your pension, should you die first.You and your spouse may waive this option in favor of a certain and continuous or Social Security adjustment option.
- If you are married when you retire and have not chosen another form of payment, you will receive benefits based on the option under which your spouse receives 50% of the benefit after your death.
- If you are unmarried when you retire and have not chosen another payment option, you will receive an unreduced monthly benefit for life.
Certain and Continuous Option
You may choose to receive your benefit for a minimum of 5, 10 or 15 years. If you live longer, your benefit will continue for as long as you live.- If you die during the period of time you have chosen to receive this benefit, the remaining benefit will be paid to your beneficiary.
- If both you and your beneficiary die during the payment period, the actuarially determined value of the remaining payments will be paid to a secondary beneficiary or, if there is no secondary beneficiary, to your estate
Social Security Adjustment Option
If you retire before you begin to collect Social Security benefits, you may increase your monthly pension benefit from the day you retire until the day your Social Security benefits begin. Your monthly pension benefit will be reduced when you start receiving Social Security benefits. The combined total of your Social Security and pension benefits then remains a constant amount. Under this option, benefit payments end when you die.